Police Work
“Apply grid.”
Whizz. Click.
“Point four, twelve.” Whizz. “Zoom in.” Click click click. “Stop.”
A silent curse.
“Zoom out.” Click click click. “Point fifty-six, five.” Whizz. “Zoom in.” Click click click.
Dammit.
“Zoom out.” Click click click. “Point sixty-four, twenty-two.” Whizz. “Zoom in.” Click click click.
A voice chimes in.
“What’s that? The MacKenzie case?” Detective sergeant Dianne Eck grabs the back of the chair occupied by her colleague, DS Jenna Tozier, and leans in to check the computer’s screen. Jenna tries hard not to notice Dianne’s hair smells of her new shampoo. Lilacs- Jenna likes lilacs. But this is work.
“Yes. I’m going nuts with this damned photograph,” Jenna says. “There’s something… off. But I don’t know what it is.”
“Ah,” Dianne smiles. That smile of hers. Jenna would kill for it, and she will, but she still doesn’t know that. “Want some help from an old hand?”
“You’re not old,” Jenna says. Has Dianne blushed, just a little? Please let it be so.
“A veteran, then,” Dianne says, still smiling.
“Yes please?” Jenna bits her lower lip, just barely. Dianne will tell her some day that she loves that tiny gesture of hers. Her mother hated it.
“Cool,” Dianne says. She grabs a chair and gets serious. “Tell me what you see.”
“An apartment. Wide. Lived in, for a long time. There’s enough canned food for one person for… one year at least, I’d say. The guy is odd: the cans are not very well organized, but he keeps his garbage in closed bags. I don’t want to even start to imagine the stench.”
“But you just said stench, not smell, so you are,” Dianne interrupts. “Facts only, officer. Go on.” That would become one of their favourite cues in bed, much later. They’ll both love it.
“All right. Neatly tied garbage bags, seven of them. A sleeping bag over the couch. Empty cardboard boxes everywhere. Discarded socks. Hmmm… more garbage, by the kitchen and in the sink. May I speculate?”
“Yes.”
“At first he carefully kept his garbage in the bags, but later he slipped. He became lazy, or maybe obsessed with something else.”
“Possible,” Dianne acknowledges. “Go on.”
“OK. Very evident: the barricaded door. The guy piled up a table, at least three chairs and a bookshelf. And he had previously nailed planks on. I’d say he was afraid of someone or something, and it seems he was right.”
“Because…” Dianne says.
“Because of the bullet holes on the door. Four of them.” Jenna doubs. “But they never came in, the barricade is still in place…”
“What else?”
“I don’t know. There’s something wrong. I cannot quite put my finger on it…” Jenna said.
Dianne stares at her. Hard. Jenna admires that look when Dianne uses it on a suspect. But not now. She goes back to the computer screen.
“The window…” Jenna says. “All the light comes from the window. And there’s a fire escape ladder… Why did he barricade his door but not his window? If he feared someone would attack him, whoever it was could as easily come in through that window using the fire ladder. Maybe he thought he was keeping a safe exit, but it’s absurd. And if he was abducted, then they came in through the window and later locked it back?”
Dianne is smiling widely now.
“Is this a trap?” Jenna says, confused. “Is this case rigged? A trap for rookies in the precinct?”
“Ah, darling,” Dianne says, and a chill runs up Jenna’s spine. “You’ve just met up the cop’s Kobayashi Maru.”
~~~~
This is my entry for the Weekly Writing Exercise: April 18–24, 2016 on the Writer’s Discussion Group in Google+.
I finished last week’s story with a reference to Blade Runner. This week I also started with another reference to the film, but this time it’s oblique: the first character, Jenna, is analyzing the picture with a machine analogous to the one Rick Deckard uses in the movie. I also used it as a trick to start writing, and then the story flowed more easily.
The future love story that serves as a background somehow appeared unexpectedly. I love when those things happen.
I end with another reference to pop culture. Perhaps I should refrain from using them, but I like them.
On a different note, I think this is the first time I’ve written using the present tense. And I’m also trying to focus a bit more on the characters. Whether I succeed or not remains to be seen.
